Living his dream, Rex Vogel is a Snowbird with a passion for RVing, photography, hiking, and birding.

Scenic Byway 12: An All American Road

Located in southwestern Utah, Scenic Byway 12 is nestled between two national parks—Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon

A 121-mile-long All-American Road, Scenic Byway 12 winds
and climbs and twists and turns and descends as it snakes its way through
memorable landscapes, ranging from the remains of ancient sea beds to one of
the world’s highest alpine forests, and from astonishing pink and russet stone
turrets to open sagebrush flats.

Scenic Byway 12 has two entry points. The southwestern
gateway is from U.S. Highway 89, seven miles south of the city of Panguitch.
The northeastern gateway is from Highway 24 in the town of Torrey near Capitol
Reef National Park.

Shortly after entering the southwestern terminus at Highway
89, the scenic byway passes through U.S. Forest Service’s Red Canyon and two
short tunnels in bright red rock masses.

Established in 1924, Bryce Canyon National Park is famous
for its towering eroding-sandstone pillars called hoodoos. The breathtaking
three-mile-wide amphitheater is especially colorful at sunrise and sunset from
Bryce and Inspiration points.

Additionally, there are nine communities along Scenic Byway
12, each with a character all its own. Settled by Mormon families who
established homes and ranches in the area, the towns proudly display their
unique heritage and invite you to visit.

Settled in 1889, Boulder was America’s last town to receive
mail by mule (until 1972). The town’s main attraction, the Anasazi State Park
Museum, encompasses the ancient ruins of the Coombs archaelogical site.
Excavated in 1959, the site’s ruins and exhibits provide an interesting
look into how the Anasazi or ancient ones lived almost a thousand years ago.

About 20 miles south of Boulder, the Hole-in-the-Rock Scenic
Byway dirt road cuts south into the Escalante Canyons where you’ll find dozens
of arches, ancient Native Indian rock art, and the mind-boggling rock
formations of Devils Garden.

Escalante is often called the “Heart of Scenic Byway 12” as
it is nestled between the elevated meadows of the Aquarius and Kaiparowits
Plateaus and the low desert country surrounding the Escalante Canyons in the
middle of the byway.

About two miles northwest of town is Escalante Petrified
Forest State Park. A series of short hiking trails leads to groupings of
petrified logs, thousand-year-old petroglyphs, and dinosaur bones dating from
the Jurassic period. In the center of the park, the Wide Hollow Reservoir
offers great canoeing and bass fishing. Camping is available.

Thirty miles west of Escalante, you’ll come to the small
town of Cannonville and the Highway 400 turnoff to Kodachrome Basin State Park.
The changing warm light on the park’s towering sandstone chimneys prompted the
National Geographic Society to name the park Kodachrome in 1949.

Mile for mile, few of America’s national scenic byways can
compete with the diverse scenery and number of natural attractions along Scenic
Byway 12. Recognized as one of the most beautiful drives in America, the byway
showcases some of Utah’s uniquely scenic landscape.

When lighted by the morning sun the gorgeous chasm is an
immense bowl of lace and filigree work in stone, colored with the white of
frost and the pinks of glowing embers. To those who have not forgotten the
story books of childhood it suggests a playground for fairies. In another
aspect it seems a smoldering inferno where goblins and demons might dwell among
flames and embers.